Absolute Power Does NOT Corrupt Absolutely

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A man named Lord Actor once said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." This means that giving a person some power can turn them into a bad person. However, giving someone absolute power will always corrupt some and that these people are always bad. Knowing what the quote means the question remains, is the quote true? The answer is no. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." This is because nothing is always anything, a person’s bad deeds can be outdone by good deeds, and corruption is a matter of opinion.

Nothing in the world we live in is always anything. Even though there is what we call "facts," even those facts are sometimes disproven with other facts showing the falsity of that fact. This same idea can be applied to the idea that a person given absolute power will always be corrupted. Just as it does not always rain when it is supposed to, an absolute monarch is not always bad. If there is even one example that shows otherwise, you might come to the conclusion that the statement is false, and that example is Maria Theresa. When Maria Theresa came into power she deemed herself an "absolute monarch" in order to have more control over her people, but she used this absolute power to create many successful reforms such as making the feudal system fairer to the serfs and giving them rights. One of those rights was limiting the amount of time they could work per day. Maria thought this would improve productivity and living standards. Reforms such as these made her country prosperous during her rule. Phillip II, Louis XIV, and Fredrick II were all the same way, they may have shown some sign of c...

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...versal definition of what is right and wrong. This is impossible due to the fact that ones perception of right and wrong is made from their own personal experiences and what they have learned. This is principally the idea of moral relativity.

History is like a giant story book being rewritten over and over to fit the author’s personal view of the topic. Like a new Hollywood movie remake of an older classic, it's the same story but with pinch of the producers opinion. Lord Actor’s statement, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are always bad." is false because of that. This quote is just showing Lord Actors opinion which happens to be wrong because of wording such as tends, always, and absolutely which dramatically change the meaning of the quote. Nothing is absolutely anything, just like the validity of the quote is zilch.

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